There are known in the prior art devices adapted to examine and accept genuine bills or currency notes. Associated with these bill acceptors are bill boxes which accumulate and store bills or notes which have been accepted.
Bill acceptors and associated bill boxes are installed in various locations. They may for example be used in conjunction with machines adapted to vend various articles. As is also known in the art, such installations are periodically visited by a route man to replenish the supply of articles in the machine. At the same time the route man may have the duty of retrieving money collected by the machine and returning it to the home office.
There have been developed a number of bill boxes or bill accumulators which, when assembled in a bill receiving position on a bill acceptor, are locked in that position. Such bill boxes are provided with means responsive to removal of a full box from an acceptor for preventing access to the bills within the box by the person carrying the box to the home office. This is accomplished by a key-operated lock on the box. When the box is returned to the office by the route man, a person having a key opens the box, removes the bills and restores the box to a condition at which it may be reassembled on an acceptor.
One example of a box of the type described is shown in Kondo et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,230. While the bill box shown therein successfully achieves the purpose of being locked to the acceptor while being filled with bills so as to prevent access to bills being accumulated and the purpose of preventing access to the bills once the box has been removed from the acceptor, it is relatively complicated and cumbersome in construction. Owing to its complexity, it is relatively expensive to manufacture.